Thomas Krabacher (Sacramento)

The 2015-2016 California Legislature adjourned on September 2nd, at which time all bills approved by the Senate and Assembly were sent to the Governor’s desk (or said to be “Enrolled”) for his signature. The Governor had until September 30thto sign a bill into law, veto it, or allow it to automatically become law by taking no action.

The table below summarizes ultimate disposition of those 2016 bills identified as of interest to the ASCSU at its March 2016 plenary (AS-3248-16/FGA). A bill listed as “Chaptered” has been signed into law by the Governor.

Regarding all other bills: Bills not listed as Enrolled or Chaptered did not clear the legislature and have no chance of becoming law this year; this applies to the majority of the bills listed below. Reasons for this are varied: the author requested the hearing be postponed, it was never assigned to a policy committee, a committee never took up the bill, it was inactive (i.e., was never taken up in the legislative process), or it was held on “suspense” (i.e., the relevant fiscal committee chose not to fund it).

Also note the unique case of ACR 158 (Holden): Assembly Concurrent Resolutions (ACRs) are not bills designed to establish state policy or law, but are merely statements of the intent of the legislature on a particular topic and carry no legal weight. (They often foreshadow future legislation on the subject, however). As such they are not subject to the usual legislative review process and may be brought up for consideration at any time. This was the case with ACR 158 (Holden), which dealt with undergraduate transfer and proved to be of considerable concern to the ASCSU. It wasn’t introduced until after the ASCSU March plenary, however, and didn’t become active until midsummer; thus it wasn’t on the Academic Senate’s original priority watch list.

And a final note: Those bills originally introduced as placeholder, or “spot” bills, are marked with an asterisk. The ASCSU position on the bill in such cases is “watch.”

For those interested in the specifics of the bill language or its history, follow the links provided for each bill below.